PIN-SME

Slovenia, 6-7 May, 2008 - The conference will highlight solutions to eliminate various barriers in European healthcare. These barriers are either geographical ones, like those between healthcare providers, regions and states, or communication difficulties among the various players in healthcare systems which include users, healthcare workers, management, and regional and national authorities.

Brussels, 2 April, 2008 - ISO members failed to disapprove the Open XML format. Microsoft has compromised the International Standards Organisation (ISO) during the rush to get a stamp for their Office Open XML (OOXML), using unfair practices such as committee stuffing in several countries and political interventions of ministers in the standardization process. A vote by national members of ISO indicates a majority for the controversial Open XML format. OOXML received 75 percent approval votes of p-members of JTC1. In order to get its format safely through ISO, Microsoft had to stuff committees, lobby ministers, mobilize business partners, and rewrite the ISO rules. The rush for Open XML started with the adoption of Open Document format (considered a danger for the market monopolist Microsoft) the ISO standard for office documents (ISO 26300:2006).

Brussels, 12 February, 2008 - Given the critical importance of an efficient European ICT standardisation policy, the Commission has organized an open meeting to present and discuss the recommendations of a recent study on "The specific policy needs for ICT standardisation" to analyse the current state of European ICT standardisation policy and to present recommendations for its future development. The European standardisation system aims to balance industrial requirements with society's expectations and to provide public authorities with the standards they need to help them implement legislation in support of agreed policies.